You, too, can look like an airline pilot

Two Senators have concluded that it’s too easy to buy airline pilots’ uniforms. They want the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Transportation Security Administration “”to investigate why uniforms are so readily available.””

Senators Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Barack Obama (also D-Ill.) claim that airport security is lax for people who look like airline crewmembers which, they wrote to TSA chief David M. Stone, “”could lead to devastating consequences.”” They want the TSA to issue a federal alert about the possibility of terrorists posing as pilots — not exactly a new idea.

And what so alarmed these senators to suspect people in airline uniforms? They were scared by “”research”” by a Chicago television reporter, who learned that airline uniforms can be bought — from catalogues, no less — without showing airline identification.

Nothing was mentioned about phony ID, or all that military gear available from Sunny’s Surplus, nor do the senators propose placing global restrictions on access to tailors, fabric or sewing needles — yet.